Holiday air travelers line-up at a terminal in LAX Wednesday. Experts are predicting this year to be the largest Thanksgiving travel day ever — despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays. (Associated Press)

Americans packed up and headed to airports and train stations hours ahead of time Wednesday to get a jump on what was predicted to be the largest Thanksgiving pilgrimage ever – despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays.

A record 38.7 million U.S. residents were expected to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday.

Although early starts meant shorter lines for some people, that didn’t mean the whole journey was smooth.

Lisa Rosen’s red-eye flight to New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International from San Francisco was delayed for an hour, then she waited 50 minutes for her luggage. “We’re here in one piece. It is what it is,” said Rosen, 51.

Sally and Neil MacDonald of Sandy Hook, Conn., set out before sunrise to fly from New York’s LaGuardia Airport with their three children for a big family reunion in Arkansas.

“It’s too long to drive,” said Sally MacDonald. “This gives us more time to enjoy family instead of having our three little kids in the car for 22 hours.”

Her carry-on items included her traditional pumpkin cheesecake in a covered plastic pie plate. “If they don’t allow it, I guess the airport security will be enjoying my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving,” she said.

At the Salt Lake City airport, Dennis Tos set out even earlier, boarding a redeye flight shortly before midnight Tuesday.

“I specifically chose this hour to not get stuck in an airport. The horror stories kind of bothered me,” he said en route to a family reunion near Buffalo, N.Y. “I’ve never missed a Thanksgiving in the 58 years I’ve been alive.”

About 4.7 million U.S. residents were expected to fly for the holiday, according to AAA, and about 31.2 million travelers were expected to drive in spite of gas prices that were nearly 85 cents more per gallon than they were a year earlier. The national average for regular gasoline on Nov. 16 was $3.09 a gallon, up from $2.23 on Nov. 17, 2006.

“The question becomes `Is $10 or $15 more for gas enough to change travel plans?’ and obviously most Americans said `no,”‘ said AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport.

The weather seemed unlikely to cause any significant delays Wednesday. Michael Musher, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said light snow in the Midwest and light rain elsewhere around the country could cause only minor problems.

Light snow bogged down traffic in parts of Denver, but only two flights were listed as delayed at Denver International Airport, the nation’s fourth busiest. Airport officials spent $31 million on snow removal equipment this year, following a powerful storm last December that shut the airport down for two days.

David Miller and his family from Mansfield, Texas, were concerned about rain delays at their destination of Detroit, but 10-year-old Nicolas was hoping for worse weather: “I want to play in the snow, play snow football.”

Early starts worked unexpectedly well for some travelers.

“It’s empty, that’s weird,” Mike Patulo, 23, said at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where he arrived by 8 a.m. for a 10 a.m. flight to Cleveland. Patulo said high gas costs didn’t affect his travel plans since he doesn’t own a car.

“I haven’t found the madhouse I thought I would find,” Lou Lecalsey, 68, said at Philadelphia Inernational Airport as he waited for a flight home to Green Bay, Wis., seeing his new granddaughter in Lancaster, Pa.

Amtrak expected more than 115,000 riders Wednesday, about a 70 percent increase over a usual Wednesday, spokesman Cliff Cole said. Everything was running smoothly for the holiday, Cole said.

Travelers trickled into New York’s Pennsylvania Station before dawn, including Carrie Seligson, a 38-year-old construction worker, who got to the station an hour before her departure on one of the earliest trains to Washington, where she was going to spend the holiday with her family and attend her 20th high school reunion.

“There are too many people later in the day, and the train gets too crowded,” said Seligson.

Lines were relative short at ticket windows in New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Jason Butler, 37, said he was taking a bus to Paul Smiths, N.Y., near the Canadian border, to visit his girlfriend because “it would have cost me double to drive.” The trip was important because Thanksgiving means “just being with someone I love.”

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